When most people look for stuff these days where do they go?

Google.

I do it, you probably do it and your customers and potential customers are Googleing it.

If you make it easier for people to find you on Google it goes without saying that you will get more enquiries via your website and a proportion of those enquiries will turn into paying jobs.

So, how do you get your website higher up on Google?

The main thing is to get other websites to link to your website.

Here are a few suggestions of where you might get links:

• Business Directories
• Article Directories
• Your Suppliers Websites
• Your Friends Websites

If you can get links from other sites and combine that with adding new content to your site on a regular basis Google will start to recognise your websites as a great source of information and reward you for it by ranking your website higher up on Google, resulting in more traffic, enquiries and customers.

If you run a Beauty Related Business one place you can get links to your site for free is at www.ukbeautysalons.info/add-your-news all you need to do is submit an article about your business or services and you can also include a direct link to your website.

Happy Googleing :-)

Leonardo Wood

Q. How do I you generate more leads.

A. Use ‘Lead Generation Direct Response’ Marketing and Advertising in Your Business

Direct Response simply means that your marketing and advertising must contain a compelling reason for people to contact you. If you are going to cut through all of the other advertising and marketing out there you really need to catch peoples attention.

But, to make your Direct Response marketing even more effective in this current economy you really need to take advantage of one of the biggest shifts in marketing this decade, which is…

“Lead Generation” Marketing & Advertising

This is HUGE… your marketing and advertising may never be the same again, read on…

The secret to very successful marketing today is:

Do not make selling your products or services the prime purpose of your marketing.

Does that sound strange?

Let me say it again…

Stop trying to SELL and start GIVING.

Because of this new economy, if you really want maximise every Marketing Pound you spend you need to reduce the risk for your potential customers wherever possible.

The best way to reduce the risk for your potential customers is to stop trying to SELL to them and instead GIVE them stuff for FREE at the first point of contact.

This generates LEADS initially, rather than CUSTOMERS initially.

Still sound strange?

The reason why this strategy is so successful is because you are giving people a no risk opportunity to begin a relationship with you.

Most people are not ready to buy from you at the first point of contact but they would be willing to begin a relationship with you if you give them a compelling reason.

Let’s just imagine all of your marketing and advertising over the last 12 months generated 1200 visitors to your website, which resulted in 100 new enquiries.

I bet for every person that made an enquiry there were approximately 5 people who were very interested but weren’t quite ready to take the next step, so they didn’t contact you (that’s 500 people in total who looked at your website and were interested, but didn’t take any action).

So, using the numbers above, here’s what business owners who understand ‘Lead Generation Marketing’ ask themselves:

Out of the 1200 people that visit my website, how can I get all of those that are truly interested in my services to stop and give me their contact details?

Answer: Give all of those interested people something of real value for free.

Don’t be put off by the simplicity of this strategy.

If you shift from SELLING to GIVING at the first point of contact, you will not put off the 100 people that were going to contact you anyway, but you will make it a lot easier for the other 500 people to begin a relationship with you.

Here’s a story about Emily.

Emily specialises in Semi Permanent Make Up and she is based in London.  She typically advertises in beauty magazines and she is also running a Google advertising campaign.

All of her marketing and advertising drives people to her website.

When people arrive at Emily’s website the message is very clear, in short, her message goes something like this:

“I’m Emily.  I specialise in Semi Permanent Make Up.  I have been highly trained and I have many years experience.  Give me a call if you would like to book”.

The wording on Emily’s website is pretty much the same as 99% of all business websites regardless of business type, the message is selling her services.

So, over the course of 12 months, 1200 people arrive at Emily’s website as a direct result of her magazine advertising and Google advertising campaign.

Most of those people have not arrived at Emily’s website by accident.  They are interested in what she offers, otherwise they would not be there.

Out of the 1200 website visitors looking for ‘Semi Perm’ info, 100 of them are ready to go to the next stage so they contact Emily and a proportion of them go on to become Emily’s customers.

The other 1100 people go on their way, they continue to surf the web looking for information, and some of them will obviously check out Emily’s competitors etc.

Emily is happy with the return on her advertising investment and she carries on with her advertising year in, year out.

Now, if Emily decides she wants 200 enquiries next year, she figures she needs twice as much advertising to drive twice as many people to her website, she is not alone, this is how business owners think.

However, this is not the only way to get more enquiries via your existing advertising.

Let’s analyse the other 1100 people that came to Emily’s website. Let’s say that 600 of them are just being nosy, but the remaining 500 of them are quite interested in having make up treatments in the near future, they are just not ready to take the next step today.

What Emily needs to do is to get those 500 interested people to STOP.

Emily needs to shift her focus, she needs to stop selling and start giving.

This will get a proportion of those 500 people to stop.

So, how does Emily get some of those 500 people to begin a relationship with her?

She gives them what they want.

These 500 people are all interested in the same thing: Semi Permanent Make Up.
(Because, as we know, they haven’t arrived at Emily’s website by accident).

Some of them want prices, some of them want to know about the risks, some of the want to see examples – they all want to find out more about semi permanent make up.

So, to get a proportion of the 500 people to stop, Emily needs to give them information of real value to them in exchange for their basic contact details.

Information, in the form of an ebook, report or video are great as they can be downloaded immediately once they give their name and email address.

(Please don’t think this is complicated – it’s not, I can help you with this)

Here are some example title ideas for a Free Ebook that Emily could give away:-

· Everything You Need to Know About Semi Permanent Make Up
· How to Choose the Right Semi Permanent Make Up Technician
· Create A Brand New You – The Complete Guide to Semi Permanent Make Up

You get the idea here, Emily is an expert in Semi Permanent Make Up so there is no reason why she can’t write the content for a Free Ebook that her website visitors will be interested in.

People who are hungry for information about Semi Permanent Make Up will be willing to give Emily their name and email address in exchange for Emily’s Free Ebook, which will contain useful information that they want.

Even if only 10% of those 500 people download Emily’s ebook that’s still 50 more people that have given her their contact details.

However, in my experience I believe that the figure would be more like 30% that means Emily would now have the contact details of an additional 150 people who are very interested in semi permanent make up.

So, by shifting her focus from selling at the first point of contact to giving free information, Emily could now have the contact details of 150 people on top of the original 100 people that would have contacted her anyway.

Emily can now market to these additional 150 people forever and if she does that in the right way many of them will go on to become her customers.

By shifting your focus from SELLING to GIVING you could quite easily double the amount of people that are currently contacting you as a result of all of your existing marketing and advertising.

One of the main reasons why business owners do not GIVE stuff away for free is that they believe people will take advantage of the situation, it’s true, some people will just take your free information and run, but they would never have become a customer anyway, don’t let that put you off.

Also, you have nothing to lose; you are only giving away information, not your time.

There are lots of different ways in which we can market our businesses these days, and becasue of this it can sometimes be very difficult to decide where you should spend your time or money to attract new business.

However, there is one marketing strategy that I feel should be a priority for you right now in your business, which is:

Improve the ongoing communications you have with your Customers

Q. Apart from You, What is the Greatest Asset in Your Business?

A. Your Customers

Your customers already know and trust you, they are likely to buy from you again and if they are happy with your services they are very likely to refer you to their friends and family.

And, if you keep your customers happy they are likely to keep coming back for many years to come. So, before you implement new marketing strategies in your business to attract new customers it is essential to mine your existing customers for all their worth.

Here are a few of the reasons why your customers are the greatest asset in your business:

• It is many, many times easier to sell to your existing customers than it is to sell to people that have not previously bought from you before. Every new customer will feel a certain level of risk when doing business with you for the very first time, simply because they have never dealt with you before. Your existing customers will not be held back by the same level of risk, thus making it a lot easier to sell to your existing customers.
• It costs less to sell to an existing customer than it costs to attract a new customer. Think about all the time and money you spend marketing and advertising your business to attract each new client, whereas a direct marketing campaign to people who already know you will cost a fraction of the cost, simply because your marketing is highly targeted.
• It is easier to sell to someone who has been referred by one of your existing customers than it is to sell to someone who has never heard of you before. A recommendation is very powerful if it comes from a client who is raving about your services.
• It costs almost nothing to attract a new client who has come by way of a recommendation from an existing customer (unless you offer a fee for referrals).

Q. How do You Boost Your Income by Tapping into this Great Asset within Your Business?

A. Continually Communicate with Your Customers in the Right Way

If you had a system in place that made sure you continually communicated with your customers I am convinced it will do the following for you:

• Entice your existing clients to come back to you more often.
• Urge your old customers to buy from you again.
• Encourage more of your customers to tell more of their friends about you, more often.

Many business owners ignore their previous and existing customers, usually because they are too busy trying to get new customers or they just assume that their customers will come back time after time, some of them won’t just come back, they will go elsewhere if you ignore them.

You could keep in touch with your customers by Email, Phone, Text, Letter etc. and if you did it regularly I am convinced it will make a huge difference to the amount of new business you receive.

Here are some of the things you could be saying to your clients over time:

If you do not continually communicate and nurture the relationship you have with your customers you could be missing out on a small fortune in untapped income.

Are you communicating with your customers on a regular basis?